A day after she appeared at a rally with thousands of supporters, Sen. Hillary Clinton adopted a more subdued campaign approach yesterday, reaching out to workers at a White Marsh auto plant to talk about ways to boost the nation's economy.
Clinton's visit to the General Motors Corp. transmission plant included a candid discussion about the economy at a time when the issue has taken center stage in the election, but it capped an abridged and sometimes troubled campaign that unfolded here as Sen. Barack Obama's momentum soared.
Polls open today in the Maryland, Virginia and District of Columbia primaries, but the election's focus has shifted west - to next month's contests in Texas, Ohio and Wisconsin - and Clinton and Obama will have left the region before tonight's results are tallied. Clinton will campaign in Texas, and Obama will be in Wisconsin.
"I am absolutely looking to Ohio and Texas because we know those are states where they represent the broad electorate of this country," Clinton said, deflecting questions about her campaign's standing after Obama's strong victories in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state over the weekend. "We feel very good about where we are."
More than 400 people work at the plant Clinton toured yesterday, where workers build 90 hybrid transmissions each day.
Joined by Gov. Martin O'Malley and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Clinton walked through the facility and spoke with workers before peering under the hood of a shiny, black Chevrolet hybrid parked on the plant floor. She addressed about two dozen employees, fielding questions about health care, the auto market and the war in Iraq.
Jamal Starr, a 32-year-old industrial engineer, noted that Internet technology firms and a booming housing market had lifted the economy from its depths in the past. He asked Clinton which industries she believed would jerk the country out of its current sluggishness this time.
"I think everybody would agree that right now we're either heading for or we're currently in a recession," Starr said.
Clinton touted her plan to create environmental jobs in the so-called green collar sector. She said creating a greater market for hybrid vehicles would boost the number of jobs at auto plants such as the one in White Marsh. She suggested that jobs could be created through government programs to weatherize the homes of low-income families.
